After reading two of the best thrillers I’d read in a long time, After the Crash and I’m Travelling Alone, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about going back to reading one of Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus novels. I enjoyed the first two books in the series, Knots and Crosses and Hide and Seek, but they weren’t really in the same ball park as After the Crash and I’m Travelling Alone. I shouldn’t...

It’s that time of the week again already. Yes, it’s Thursday and it’s time to stand up and say ‘I’m feeling Loud’n’Proud!’. There’s plenty to feel proud of every day and sometimes it’s necessary to put them down onto metaphorical paper and remember it. So what are you feeling proud of this week? Maybe your teenager has worked really hard towards their GCSEs or A Levels? Maybe...

A few weeks ago, in PE class, my younger son did his first ever long jump. After he’d jumped, the teacher stopped the class and asked them what mark they would give my son out of 10. A few of them said 1o. Then the teacher said he agreed – citing my son’s perfect run-up, his precisely timed take-off, the way he landed with both feet together and his weight forward. It was a perfect long jump and a not-at-all shoddy...

In the two and a bit years that I’ve been working at home I’ve realised the doorbell rings an awful lot in the daytime. Sometimes, they use the knocker too. Just in case I’m deaf. Well, I soon will be if they bang the flipping knocker as hard as that. All those important people I would have missed if I was sat in an office working. Except I wouldn’t have missed them. Because they’re not important....

Today I’m sharing a guest post with you from a victim of domestic abuse. I’m pleased to say I’ve never suffered from domestic abuse myself, but domestic abuse will effect one in four women and one in six men in their lifetimes. Every week two women in the UK are murdered as a result of domestic abuse. This story is a long one and times it is a tough read, but, ultimately, it is an inspiring story of a very brave and...